In recent years, performances of ink-jet color printers have been remarkably improved. In ink-jet printing on a paper, it is possible to obtain easily and quickly a color print having a quality as high as that of a photograph in particular by the use of a specialty paper having on the surface thereof an ink accepting layer containing a pigment. or a binder.
On the other hand, various trials have been made to apply the printing technique of an ink-jet system to a cloth. However, the conventional ink-jet system has the following problems.
That is, when the ink-jet system is applied to printing, either a pigment ink or a dye ink can be selectively used. In general, the dye ink is an aqueous ink and the viscosity thereof can be made low easily. Such dye ink is advantageous in that clogging on nozzle tips can be prevented easily. The dye ink is further advantageous in that a cloth can maintain the texture thereof even after printing is carried out thereon because the fiber of the cloth is directly dyed with the dye ink Accordingly, printing (textile printing) on a cloth is preferably carried out by the use of the ink-jet system and the dye ink. Printing on a Japanese paper is also preferably carried out in the same manner.
However, when the dye ink is used for a fiber sheet such as a cloth, a Japanese paper or the like, it is difficult to form a sharp textile printing pattern and a pre-treatment is therefore necessary for prevention of bleeding. As a matter of common knowledge of textile printing on a cloth, troublesome post-treatments including the steps of heating with hot steam, washing, drying and the like is required after a textile printing is carried out.
Accordingly, it is still difficult to easily and quickly obtain a cloth capable of being used for a sharp and high-quality ink-jet textile printing.
In addition, the term “Japanese paper” means a paper which has been manufactured in Japan from old times. The Japanese papers can be classified into two types: hand-made papers and machine-made papers. The former are made from a phleom fiber of trees such as paper mulberry, trident daphne. Shikoku daphne and the like, and further classified into a Japanese writing paper, a mino paper, a thick Japanese paper, a Japanese vellum and the like. The latter are made from a fiber of waste paper, wood pulp, rag, hemp of Manila, trident daphne and the like, and further classified into a bathroom tissue paper, a pocket tissue paper, a sliding screen paper, a calligraphic paper, a rough printing paper and the like.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a textile printing method which needs no troublesome post-processing including a number of steps, and is capable of obtaining easily a sharp print which is free from bleeding without ruining a texture of a fiber sheet. Another object of the present invention is to provide a pre-treating fluid which makes it possible of the above textile printing method. A further object of the present invention is to provide a fiber sheet for textile printing.